Annalicia sat pouting at the table in the local pub Sebastian found her in after closing the gate. The young woman was drinking ale, an unusual sight to see since the lady’s taste tended toward wine if she drank at all.
“Something wrong, Anna?” Bas asked as he pulled out a chair for Yara before sitting himself.
Reynolvan glared at the mage, probably for being too familiar with the girl as usual. Despite the guardian wizard’s best efforts, Annalicia and Sebastian were on friendly terms. They respected each other as spell casters and as leaders. They also got along well based on personality. “Lady Annalicia has had a trying day dealing with bureaucrats, who are most likely paid to hide the truth. It is your fault that she is in this mood, so be a little respectful.”
His voice was a bit raised as he scolded the mage, who let the words roll off of him as usual. Reynolvan was a little too full of himself and fully devoted to the lady; but apparently, unlike Sebastian, Anna was not in the mood for his tirades at the moment.
A crack as her small hand slapped the side of the wizard’s face brought wide eyes to them all, not the least surprised of which was Reynolvan. Anna’s cheeks were already a bit red and, being so slim, she was already feeling the effects of the ale. “Shut up, Reynolvan, or I will send you back to the ship. As if that blowhard mayor wasn’t enough to test my last nerve, I don’t need you harping on Sebastian as well. He’s more of a friend to me than you are, so just be quiet and drink your ale.”
Looking at the mug before him that appeared to be untouched as it didn’t meet the wizard’s standards, the man frowned first at his drink before turning a glare on the battle mage beside him. His face was turned away from Anna, so she missed the look on the wizard’s face before he picked up his mug bringing the ale to his lips. Bas doubted he even took a taste of the liquid, but instead mimed the act for the lady.
“I offered that tub of lard a chance to buy some of Malaiy’s goods, just to have a reason to speak with him and he turned me down. We sell the most popular perfumes and our pearls are considered beyond reproach, but he said that Banosh had no need of such things. So I offered to sell to him as a middle man giving a good price that his merchants could ship them to the north for a profit. It would save Malaiy cost to ship them the extra distance and the time breaking up shipments, so we could work on the cost; but again he said that he wasn’t interested!”
Sebastian gave Annalicia a sympathetic look, but lowered his voice as he asked, “And did you find out if they had business arrangements with other lands to the north, perhaps Ensolus or other lands that do not have their own harbor?”
Blinking at the question as she was consumed in the affront to her, the girl took a moment to realize what he meant. Still sober enough to understand the battle mage; Anna nodded as she lowered her voice also. “We talked about the mines to the southwest. He was proud of their mountains since so many precious metals and ores have been found already, but he complained that Sileoth has cities on the west side of Litsarin and is trying to lay claim to the rest.
“He didn’t come out and say who was resisting that takeover, but I doubt a small collection of towns on a backwoods island actually has the power to resist on their own. I doubt whether Talos or Baltu would be enough of a deterrent either. They have never been known for any fighting force stronger than a handful of pirates in centuries.”
Sebastian nodded reading between the lines of what had been said and what was not. Banosh didn’t look like a town ready to battle a sea power like Sileoth and only if the emperor was invested would they likely have any help to keep the mines tied to their commerce. The Cataclysm had been hard on the island nations as much as any of North continent, but with the change in the land and sea came new riches like these mines and the diamond mines of Trillian. Even two hundred years wasn’t sufficient to grow powerful enough to protect the smaller nations from one like Sileoth or Marianis. They had been part of the same devastation that broke them free of the mainland and killed so many, but much of their population had survived and adapted to their new status as massive island nations.
“I wonder if we could go to one of the mining towns to check them out. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for an emissary of Malaiy to try and deal directly with them would it?”
At Anna’s initial confusion, Sebastian added, “If no one is against it, I think that we can sail to Sardon to the south before we take a quick trip to Parik the closest of the mining towns. We should really do our best to find out if maybe one of the other towns might be more willing to trade with Malaiy.”
Anna groaned and lowered her head before giving up their preferred route back to Southwall. “Whatever, Sebastian, but you know that you ask an awful lot, even if you did help save my life.”
Chuckling, the mage replied, “Well, at least I can hold that over your head. So we’ll wait for the others before returning to the ships, then head south. I can also take care of these interesting little stones we found. Since Darterian wasn’t sure what to do to disable their magic, maybe I can make it unpleasant for their owner to use them again.”
Yara asked curiously from his side, “What do you plan to do with them?”
“I thought maybe dropping them into the sea on our way south might make a new gate interesting,” he grinned and received smiles at the idea. They were all more than willing to give the minions of the emperor as much trouble as they could even from afar.
With little more discovered by those who had searched around the heart of Banosh, Sebastian decided that it was time to leave. There was enough pointing to the emperor’s hand or someone from Ensolus being behind the town. Having disabled the only gate nearby, the mage had become excited by the idea of finding the second older gate. There seemed to just be the two as far as the compass could tell and if Litsarin was a stopping point for Ensolus, destroying their ties would force them to find new ways of interfering beyond their mountains.
The breakwater was quickly put behind the two ships as they pushed towards the south and the others watched as the battle mage produced the two lodestones.
“Air lance,” he called the wind spell to his hand encompassing the stone in a weapon that was made from solidified air. It felt alive as it pulsed in his hand threatening to break apart if his spell should give at all.
He stood on the deck facing out towards the ocean and heaved the spear as if it required his physical action. In truth, the throwing motion was more for his mind than the need to do so and his mind was what drove the spear into the air until it disappeared out of sight somewhere to the east. He didn’t even see the splash as the stones struck the water to descend into the depths of the sea.
“Well, I would hate to be the warlock who tried coming through that gate,” Olan laughed echoed by the others.
Liam nodded and added, “Unless they have merfolk to reach them, I think that will take care of this one.”
Many eyes glanced towards the two mermaids standing on the Sea Dragon’s deck. It was doubtful that the emperor had merfolk to retrieve the stones, but during the Cataclysm there were creatures created by the Dark One which could exist beneath the sea. They were believed to be instrumental in the emperor’s plan to shake the world and softening it up for his arrival.
Sebastian wondered if the Dark One still had any sea orcs or whatever monsters they might have been. No matter what they did to stem the tide of his evil, the emperor always seemed to have new ways of plaguing Southwall. One day he hoped that they could bring the fight to Ensolus ending the threat once and for all, but that was a lofty dream.
Chapter 12- Reopening
Rilena yawned as she sat poking at her breakfast on the tray in front of her. The mage had been assisting Darius for a little over a week wandering from one end of Windmeer and the village it protected to the other looking for signs of portal activity with the high wizard. Though she did little more than walk with the man; the boredom of just watching him work seemed to tire her more than riding patrol north of the wall. The
wizard also liked starting early, so there she was at the first bell, breakfast waiting to meet with the man for yet another walk watching the men from Eirdhen.
“You look like you’ve been through the wringer,” a boy’s voice stated before another tray was placed across from the young woman.
Looking up, she watched as Elzen sat across from her with a smile on his face for his close friend. His green eyes drew hers to him and she thought on how attractive his face still looked to her. He was a couple years younger and often acted immature when there was nothing important to do, but Rilena had seen him in action under fire. When others were in disarray during the enemy attacks during the march to the fortress, it was Elzen who had rallied those closest to him to drive the monsters back.
He was also a healer, a rarity among battle mages, and had even healed her when they first met. While combat was second nature to him and she had heard that it was that nature which made it hard for battle mages to become healers, Elzen also had a caring part to him that must have been able to make him able to succeed where most failed.
“Every day, for over a week, Darius has scoured Windmeer for gates. He found the ones from the assassins’ attack and went to the basement to find the mirror gate created by the Betrayer. Since then, we have been walking through the village and even to North Wall.
“The devices they use are supposed to be able to read large, powerful portals from a distance, but apparently there are small ones in the village as well that he can find if he looks close enough. He said that most have the same magical signature as the one created in the hallway outside of Garosh’s room.”
Frowning as his face revealed surprise as well, Elzen stated, “The Betrayer is the one who brought the assassins again, but did he also create gates around the village? How did he manage to leave so many gates without being noticed?
“Did Darius mention if he believed Palose left other gates here in the first place to return? It was several months before he did anything noticeable, if he has been returning here since.” Rubbing his chin, the mage added, “It’s pretty gutsy too. I mean a lot of people still know his face in the castle.”
Rilena sighed as she didn’t truly want to talk about it, since that and similar topics of thought had been surrounding her for the last week. Ever since Darius arrived, it felt like she was continually either being grilled about how Garosh used his portal magic or how she thought Palose had used his.
“You know as much as I do, Elzen,” she stated glancing back to her food. Nothing about her plate looked good to her now, but the girl knew that she needed to eat. It was going to be another long day with the high wizard. “Palose’s magic seems to be the only magic Darius has found in relation to the gates, but that seems odd to me. How can a battle mage have learned to use this magic? The mirror gate was created in a different way using blood sacrifices for power, from what I have been told. Now we have these new smaller gates, according to Darius, which are solely consisting of one person’s magic. It just seems strange to me.”
“He was more powerful than before,” the younger man replied, though it wasn’t exactly the answer Rilena had expected and, in fact, had meant the questions to be rhetorical. Elzen was viewed as a battle mage and was a close quarter combat specialist, which made most view him as a simple minded person. No one thought someone relying on their bodies, rather than a sword, could be too intelligent; but Elzen was also a healer and she knew that he was smarter than his often silly ways let on to those only seeing his surface.
“I didn’t get to see much of him, though I remember that powerful girl. She had so much power that I didn’t even notice him,” Rilena admitted. Of course, Garosh had pulled her away so quickly in the midst of the initial rush that the mage had very little time to notice as much as Elzen, who had been there until the pair disappeared through a new portal.
Nodding, Elzen looked down at his surprisingly empty plate. Rilena couldn’t believe that he had finished before either of them realized it. Laying down his fork, the boy said, “She was powerful and an easy distraction, but using our reflex spell I had time to see him build a gate. He used the gestures of a wizard and his power was well beyond that of a battle mage. If Palose had been that strong before, he would never have been trained to be a battle mage. He would have been drafted by the wizards.”
A frown wrinkled her brow as the girl replied with a little doubt in her voice, “He was that much stronger? You knew him before the attack too, didn’t you?”
“Who was stronger?” a girl’s voice asked from behind Rilena startling her in spite of the steady rise of noise in the common room. With a flurry of blue robes, a slender, blond haired wizard sat beside her before giving Rilena a quick hug. She smelled amazing thanks to the water wizard’s dalliance into perfumes, soaps and various other niceties the woman seemed drawn to explore.
“Hello, Teven, I see you’ve returned from the wall,” Elzen said with a grin at Rilena’s discomfort. The battle mage hadn’t known the wizard very long, and was still trying to get used to her eccentricities. One of her first friends made in Windmeer, the wizard had met her in the bathhouse of all places being completely at ease in her skin, even when Rilena was not as comfortable being naked in the women’s communal baths. The wizard also seemed oblivious to any discomfort she created for Rilena, but was so sweet that the mage couldn’t help loving the young woman even so.
Looking up from hugging her friend, Teven nodded, “Yes, my time was short there as usual. Water wizards aren’t considered as useful on a stone wall, so we rarely spend more than a week there.
“Who are you talking about?” she asked returning to topic after barely being pulled away.
Elzen frowned answering first, “The Betrayer, he was just a battle mage when he came here, but something has made him more powerful. I may not be as good a judge of magic levels as a wizard, but I swear that he was as strong as a wizard.”
Looking to the innocent looking water wizard, who appeared to be just a girl though she was several years older than Rilena, the mage asked, “Do you know of anything that could make a mage or wizard that much stronger, Teven? Being a wizard, maybe you have heard of something that we wouldn’t have as mages.”
Scrunching up her face a moment, the light blond hair fluttered around her shoulders in a shake of her head when she replied, “I am a water wizard, so perhaps a research wizard might be better to ask; but I doubt any such thing has been written down in Southwall. Such a trick, to make battle mages as powerful as wizards, would certainly have been made common knowledge to bring greater strength to Southwall.”
Making an apologetic look at her words, Teven added, “Not that we don’t see the benefits mages bring to the battle field, of course; but if wizards and mages could become more powerful in such a short time, I think we would.”
They understood what Teven meant without any offense, Elzen asked the question in a different way, “Wizards and mages can share power to work together to make a stronger spell. Is there a way to make such sharing permanent? It would make the one sharing weaker probably, but the Dark One’s warlocks might be willing to cannibalize one another, if they strive for individual power there.”
His words made Rilena realize how little they truly knew of their enemy even after all the centuries of being at war. Getting to know Garosh and his inner circle of wizards and even the monstrous wraiths, who were beings raised from the dead to serve a necromancer; the woman had come to see that they had many of the same feelings and hopes for life as their counterparts in Southwall.
While raising the dead was distasteful and outlawed in Southwall, the magic was known and, frankly, feared by her people. If the Dark One’s wizards could tamper with the bonds of life and death, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of belief to think that a warlock might steal power from his rivals in such a world.
Teven answered Elzen’s musings thinking his questions were intended to receive a reply, “Usually a wizard gives up some of her energy in a shared way, bu
t the magic will return. The one receiving the help doesn’t retain the extra strength, but I have heard of dying wizards being healed by wizard healers who nearly killed their attempted healers by drawing on their helper’s power forcefully.
“If a wizard is so drained of magic, a healer has to be careful of their patient. The instinct of a drained wizard is too pull on any source of magic that they can find to replenish their reserves. Maybe one like that might retain what is stolen.”
As Teven answered, Elzen appeared to heed her warning. He was a healer as well after all.
Rilena caught the boy aiming his fork at her eggs, already cold from her dallying; and shot him a look. “Keep your fork to yourself, Falcon Rattemen,” she warned using his title and surname in response as the mage tried to hide any trace of a smile from him.
Unlike Rilena, Elzen grinned at the brunette and stated, “You’ve been playing with it for half an hour. I was just trying to give it a good home. After all, it would be a shame to waste so much food.”
“I see couples sharing food all the time,” Teven remarked before taking a bite of a prapple.
“We’re not a couple!” the two mages replied in unison before guilty glances flicked to their opposite.
When Rilena had first returned from the fortress that night, they had exchanged a kiss and embrace. He had been in the bath and naked when the woman returned through Garosh’s portal, but they hadn’t kissed until they were somewhat dressed. She was in a robe. Elzen hadn’t even put on his shirt, and it been a moment of passion.
Rilena hadn’t forgotten it, but the two had remained friends since then without moving their relationship further. Once Darius and the demands on her time started, she had seen the boy rarely.
Teven’s crystal blue eyes looked between the two and Rilena wondered if the wizard noticed her blushing. Simply answering, “You two seem like a couple, especially when you first returned.”
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 17
